Opinion: Jack Latvala did one thing right — resigned after sexual harassment investigation

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Sen. Jack Latvala has been accused of inappropriately touching and harassing female Senate workers and visitors at the Florida Capitol. Latvala is a candidate for Florida governor.(Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)

Jack Latvala’s resignation from the Florida Senate Wednesday was a welcome relief for his colleagues, Florida taxpayers and the senator himself.

He insisted to the end that he was innocent of sexual harassment, despite the detailed report on allegations brought anonymously by six women who said Latvala touched them inappropriately or made improper remarks to them. Retired Circuit Judge Ronald Swanson’s report was filed just a day before Latvala pulled the plug on his nearly 16-year Senate career.

Latvala had earlier been replaced as Senate budget chairman and Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday morning had called for him to leave the Senate. Latvala had said on Facebook he planned to consult his legal team and political advisers next week and decide what to do, but there was no way he could have remained in public life.

“Sen. Latvala made the right decision,” Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said in a prepared statement. “The allegations in this complaint, and the resulting special master’s report, describe behavior that violates the public trust.”

Six women told Politico last month that Latvala touched them inappropriately and made improper remarks to them. One Senate employee described being mauled in an elevator.

Latvala strongly denied any misconduct. He may have hugged friends or made little jokes in his gruff manner, he said, but he never meant to offend anyone and was unaware that some women were avoiding or tolerating him for fear of harming their career prospects.

In a letter to Negron, Latvala said he wasn’t given a fair chance to defend himself. The Senate Rules Committee was to have begun hearings on his conduct Jan. 11, but the senator made his resignation official Jan. 5 — the Friday before the 2018 session convenes.

“I have maintained that the charges in the original complaint are fabrications and say that still today…,” he wrote. “But I have had enough. If this is the process our party and Senate leadership desires, then I have no interest in continuing to serve with you.”

He may still face a criminal investigation, though.

A lobbyist who said she had a personal relationship with Latvala before he got engaged to his wife told the special master that he continued making advances when she called on his office on behalf of clients needing help with legislation. The unidentified woman testified that the lawmaker apparently felt he was “entitled” to touch or speak to her intimately — and that he even made it clear his vote on bills and amendments might depend on her acceptance, or at least toleration, of his advances.

Such a quid-pro-quo could amount to a bribery attempt. Swanson recommended that the Florida Commission on Ethics or state police agencies look into that situation.

On top of sexual harassment, Latvala was accused of leaking the name of one of the Senate staffers who filed a confidential complaint against him. He denied any such involvement but Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, brought a separate rules complaint against him.

It’s been a bad year for the Senate’s image. Republican Sen. Frank Artiles of Miami resigned following a racist rant that included insulting references to Negron. Democrat Jeff Clemens of Palm Beach County had to quit when his affair with a lobbyist was revealed. And now Latvala.

People hold politicians in fairly low esteem, anyway. The current national furor over sexual harassment — the overdue #MeToo backlash — makes this election year the worst possible time for scandalous committee hearings, followed by a possibly lurid floor debate.

If Latvala hadn’t submitted his resignation on Wednesday, the Senate would have opened its session under an ominous cloud on Jan. 9. Even without the senator’s sensitive situation to deal with, the special master recommended that Negron and his leadership examine its workplace “culture” and procedures for handling such complaints.

Deservedly or not, we hope Jack Latvala will be a lesson to them all. The men in Florida politics apparently need to know their power doesn’t mean they can do whatever they want, and the women need to know they don’t have to put up with it.